Kyle
The house music capital of the USA is about to become the capital of startups in the USA if these Chicago based entrepreneurs have anything to do with it. You may recall a couple weeks back Pando Daily sent a young reporter to Chicago who reported back that there was nothing to report here. Pando Daily’s Trevor Gilbert could not have been more off base.
We’ve already shared a few great startups out of Chicago with KlutchClub and Planfast, today we’re talking the important stuff, TechMoola. Everyone needs money and TechMoola has a startup that is a platform for other startups to make money. Co-Founders Solomon Nabatiyan and Tom Kelly are gearing the TechMoola platform exclusively to technology based startups.
We got a chance to talk with Nabatiyan who loves the city of Chicago as much (if not more than) Patrick Stump.
1. What is Techmoola
TechMoola.com is an online platform for tech entrepreneurs and startup companies to do project fundraising in the technology space. TechMoola enables inventors/entrepreneurs to raise project funding and build a support/partnership/customer base through an online forum.
Unlike Kickstarter and other sites which feature “technology” but actually host artistic venture or design projects/products that mainly are additio
2. Who are the founders, what did they do before this
Solomon Nabatiyan is a research professor in the biomedical sciences at Northwestern University, Evanston as well as the founder and CEO of a Chicago-based biotech company, Cervia Diagnostic Innovations, a social venture company that focuses on cervical cancer technologies for use in the developing world. His research work centers on the development of a new generation of HIV and cancer diagnostics to improve the quality of care and access to those who need it most.
Tom Kelly is a serial entrepreneur and digital guru in the Chicago area with an interest in web technologies that empower people and have a social impact. Among his many startups, CharityAuctionsToday.com has proven his most successful. He continues to bring innovation to how people can use the web to make the world around them a more sustainable and awesome place.
More after the break
3. What’s your backstory, how did the idea come up?
My social venture company Cervia Diagnostic Innovations (CDI) was the driving force in developing a crowdfunding platform for technology and inventions. Borne from my clinical success as a research professor at Northwestern University, CDI seeks to develop low-cost, rapid, accurate diagnostics to screen women for cervical cancer which kills more women than any other cancer and is a completely preventable disease if caught early and yet a woman dies of cervical cancer once every 2 minutes. Our technology can revolutionize care of women worldwide and make cervical cancer history. Over the course of 2 years, I explained this and my technology to so many venture capital groups and angel investors and the response was always the same. Sounds like a great idea and very worthwhile/noble, but it will take more than 5 years to earn profit, so we’re not interested. I decided that enoughis enough. Let’s take it to the People’s Court and let the crowds be the judge. I gave a try at Kickstarter but they turned down my project because I suppose they only take on projects that somehow build on existing Apple products! (they like all other sites out there emphasize on design rather than core technical innovation). I realized that I am not alone in my struggle. Something had to be done. The world needs innovative solutions to our most pressing problems and there are good, capable, smart people out there working on them. I spoke to my partner Tom and we agreed that TechMoola isthe right thing to do at the right time. And so our adventure began.
4. Briefly walk us through the end user experience first identify who your enduser/target market is:
The power of democracy has come to the funding world of tech enthusiasts and users in full scale. It is a quiet revolution that’s been taking place over the past 2 years, one that is redistributing power from the hands of the privileged elite such as banks, high net-worth individuals and venture groups to the everyday man and tech user who can use his own common sense and judgment of societal needs and not bottom-line profit considerations to fund, promote and be associated with something that is important to them and which they feel will make a difference in their interdependent and interconnected world. From here on out, patronage will no longer be the privilege of the wealthy any more. With sites like TechMoola, anyone can be the patron of an invention as long as it is funded through a crowdfunding service.
5. Are you facing any challenges being outside the “Valley”
None whatsoever. Chicago is so full of energy and ideas, basically you walk down the street for a pub crawl and you stumble across 10 new drunk web tech entrepreneurs with really hot ideas that you just want to go home and steal for yourself!
6. Is Chicago a thriving tech town?
You bet. As I said in question 5, there is a huge community of people with big ideas, big dreams and that mid-western work ethic (basically being snowed in for 6 months by shitty, cold, dark weather) to work super hard and make magic happen in a non-stop fashion. This place is like adding Red Bull, Viagra and crack to a protein Jamba Juice and hitting up your roaming 4G internet connection to get moving anytime, anywhere, everywhere .
7. What is the next thing on your todo list for Techmoola
Get featured on as many tech sites as possible. We need to wake up the tech community and let them know we are here.
8. Are you already helping other startups get funding?
Yes, all of our current projects represent new tech startups.
9. What’s been your biggest obstacle to date?
Getting the publicity we need in the tech community as this is a crowded space with a lot of noise and lots of people, new and old, vying for attention. But we have a fun site and a lot to offer so once we get our foot in the door, I am confident we will have many adapters and loyal supporters.
We have a blog at www.whatisaninnovation.com
The energy and the attention lavished by VCs, angels and fellow tech entrepreneurs. Unlike Silicon Valley where I used to be where a lot fo folks are competing with each other to become the next Google, which really is a fantasy, tech folks in Chicago are chilled out and genuinely cooperative. Almost everyone here has a grounded sense of reality that they will not be the next Groupon or whatever, but they can still succeed and do well and if they help others do well, the karma will come back and help them do well too.
The best answer has ever been given to the “Is Chicago a thriving tech town?”
“You bet. There is a huge community of people with big ideas, big dreams and that mid-western work ethic (basically being snowed in for 6 months by shitty, cold, dark weather) to work super hard and make magic happen in a non-stop fashion. This place is like adding Red Bull, Viagra and crack to a protein Jamba Juice and hitting up your roaming 4G internet connection to get moving anytime, anywhere, everywhere . ”